I am well aware that the group routine, Pretty Reckless, is from Season 7 but I was rewatching it the other day and I just felt like putting it into. Just pretend that Maddie, Kenzie, Aurelia and Amy are in it though.
***
"Okay girls, Kalani is a reckless driver and you guys are the responsible ones who don't really want to get pulled along with her, but you do it to make sure she is alright. Understand? Now let's get back to work."
The music comes on and we all stand to the side watching Kalani perform first. We come on and pirouette. We all crouch down next to Kalani and I hear Abby shout. "Nia, elongate your arm more."
"Brynn this is the second time I've had to tell you to straighten your leg before you run into the leap."
We hold Kalani up. "Kalani, your feet are either both flexed or both pointed, decide!"
Fortunately Abby doesn't say anything for a while. We reach the chorus and I'm dancing behind Maddie as we run to the right and leap. "Maddie you're behind on your landing, same with you Aurelia, I don't want the height I want the timing. Fix it."
We get to as far as we've done in our dance. "Well done girls! We've got to just over a minute of our dance, halfway there. It's not perfect but it is rather good in the two hours we've been doing it. However I do have some corrections for each of you."
"Kalani, you're the lead you need to portray more ecstatic emotions at the start and use it in your actions, remember either flexed or pointed in the lift but not at the same time."
"Jojo, contemporary isn't your strong point but you can't notice it. My only corrections are when you come down curl in more; you look like a starfish and when you are facing the back elongate your arms because they look like a squashed tomato."
"Mackenzie, your legs are all over the place at the moment, which is ruining the quality of the dance and the height of your legs. I want you to go away this morning and have to fixed by tonight."
"Kendall, when you stand up look away from Kalani and the other girls, I keep on noticing you glancing at them which is making me doubt whether you really know the choreography."
"Nia, you're too close to Brynn when you come on, when you leap and when you roll and you're disrupting the spacing."
"Maddie and Aurelia, the same as I said earlier; don't bother with getting the height in your leaps if it's going to make you behind. And I don't want to see those sickle feet when you go onto demi-pointe which you both seem to be doing unconsciously."
"Amy, you have too much facial expressions and too much of elaboration in your moves, this is good in a solo or when you're a lead of a dance, but you are not so tone it down."
"Brynn I love what you're doing so much. As I said, just keep that leg straight when you go to run before you do your first leap. Right that's the group dance done for the morning girls, I want Maddie, Kalani and Jojo to stay for their trio, but the rest of you have a free hour before lunch."
We all squeal and run off.
"Okay, we'll do the live on my phone," giggles Kendall and we all run up to her to position ourselves in the camera frame. Almost immediately we get six thousand viewers, the number quickly increases to thirty thousand.
"Hey guys, it's me Kendall with all my friends from Dance Moms."
"I'm Mackenzie, as I'm sure you all know, but today Nia, Kendall, Brynn and I have two special guests with us."
Amy and I pop into the camera and the fans start commenting like crazy; is that Aurelia Ellery?
"I'm Amy Valenar, but I don't think a lot of people know me, make sure to check out my instagram; AmyValenarSmile."
"You probably know me though! Yes, I'm Aurelia Ellery and I'm hanging out with these awesome girls."
"The fans really want us to show them some tricks on the tumble track," Brynn whispers in my ear. We all nod and giggle in synch as we run from the den to the tumble track room.
"Comment what you want to see us do!" Nia tells the viewers and comments immediately start popping up.
"Brynn, can you do a roundoff back handspring double full?" Kendall reads out and Brynn goes to the track and performs it. We all cheer; she is amazing.
"Now it's Mackenzie's turn. Can you shows us a roundoff full twist to double full and ending with a back tuck?" Mackenzie does land it but she's wobbling.
"Come on, Kenzie, stick it." She holds it for three seconds and we cheer as she collapses on the tumble track.
"Okay," I read from the comments section. "This is going to be hard but they dare Kendall and Amy to do a full twist ending in a back tuck holding hands." The pair try it, but they end up landing on their bottoms as we all laugh our heads off.
Nia shows the camera a front walkover roundoff back handspring full and we all laugh as she accidentally lands on one foot and falls into bridge.
"OMG! You have no idea what they are daring you to do Aurelia," Kendall practically shouts, causing Gianna to come from Studio A to tell us to quieten down. "They want you to do a roundoff back handspring whip whip double back handspring double full."
We all gasp. "Nia can you grab my phone from over there, I am so recording this." Kenzie starts recording and I tense and untense getting ready. If I mess this up I will be so humiliated. I start and land it.
"OMG THAT WAS SO AMAZING!" Shrieks Kendall. I look up to find Gianna standing from the doorway, smiling proudly. She disappears quickly when she sees my gaze though.
*
We eat salad for lunch, and I have a ballet class and a tap class while Brynn and I wait for the other four to finish their sessions on their duets. Lilliana and Kendall come out and motion for us to go in. Lilly and Ellie are so adorable!
"Okay girls your duet is called One Breathing, Other Heaving. What do you think it's about?"
"Well to me it kinda seems like someone has just rescued a drowning person because people heave up water after they've been drowning. I don't really know," Brynn chuckles awkwardly and we both share a look, trying to prevent ourselves from giggling.
"Close," Abby says. "But that's not quite it. What do you think Aurelia?"
"I think it's about someone who is upset from past experiences or damaged and they're the one who is heaving and trying to push everyone away and then the one who is breathing is trying to bring them back trying to show them that everything's okay. But the heaving one is trying to show the breathing person that it's not okay and the perils of friendship and stuff."
Abby looks impressed. "That's some very good analysation there Aurelia. That's almost spot on! The song you'll be dancing to is called Youth by Daughter. Aurelia will start on the floor with your legs open and feet flexed, head down. Brynn start above her in reversed attitude with your arms reaching backwards as if in a daze."
We do so and we stay there for a moment as Abby show Brynn how to hold her hands. She then tells me to to flex my hands so they're exactly like my feet.
"Okay as soon as the music starts Brynn will go into a ponche slowly and reach out to Aurelia. Aurelia I want you to gradually go move your legs into middle split and round. Then lean your back and arms back when Brynn reaches out so that your head goes all the way down to touch your bottom with your legs straight behind you. When the lyrics come on as shadows settle in the place you left I want Brynn to turn with your leg still up and run two or three paces and into front aerial. Go straight to a crouch as though pushing the shadows back, then with one hand still in that position turn your head to the audience and draw your hand beneath your chin and smile, as if trying to reassure the audience that everything is alright. Meanwhile I want Aurelia to do a front roll with your head on your feet and get up. I then want you to go into a plie in a la second and hold your head down as if in despair after a few seconds rise and do one pirouette.
We run it through and I stumble a bit so we do it twice to get it into our heads.
"Then I want you to both do three pirouettes in a la second, one fouette. You'll run three paces and a Russian switch change leap. Then turn on your heel and a simple split leap. This should bring you together, so you'll hug. On the word time, Aurelia turn around and Brynn pull back and place a hand on her shoulder."
We practice the dance until we've done three fifths of it. I love the song and I really think it has brought us closer together.
"Okay Brynn and Aurelia you've done amazing, but don't tell the others that. Go send them in for the group dance."
*
Two hours later we have completed the choreography of the group dance, but it is a long way off from perfection.
The girls have all gone to prepare for the interviews for last week, which Amy and I weren't here for so we don't have to go, but Amy was late so she missed her interview so she is doing it now.
"So it's just you and I," Abby tells me as I'm left in Studio A. "I was going to start all the solos tomorrow, but since you're here alone and have nothing to do I think we'll start now. The moms won't know either because they're having they're interviews too."
I nod my head and Abby briefs me on my solo. "So your solo is an acro jazz called Spider Catch. It's about you being a spider and the humans don't like spiders. You live in their house and are constantly teasing them about how they can never catch you. This will be a very hard solo, but I think you can manage. Oh, and by the way, Gianna told me about your roundoff back handspring whip whip double back handspring double full back there, and I hope we can incorporate that into the dance. I know how much you love acro and contortionism, so this is a very perfect dance for you."
I spend the next two hours on my solo and practicing the duet. The first half of my solo is almost perfect, but my second half is a bit messy.
The girls come back and I meet them in the den and we have a hip hop class and contemporary class after that.
It's ten at night when we finally leave.
Just before I leave, Kenzie runs up to me and quickly gives me her number.
On the car journey back I text her and she gives me everyone else's numbers. The girls already follow me on my social medias, so I make sure to follow them as well. I use the video that Kenzie took of me tumbling and post it on my Instagram story with Loving ALDC already! I then post a photo of Abby and I which we took while the other girls were doing interviews and caption it on all my social medias as gotta love competition #aldc and then tag all the girls including Abby and Gianna in the photo. Brynn and Jojo almost immediately like it and I chuckle.
As soon as we get home I eat cod and salad for dinner before going up to bed. I ignore my brothers' questions and just flop on my bed and fall asleep immediately.
***
In the next chapter it is going to be a lot less about dance and more about arguements and friendship. I am working on portraying Aurelia and Maddie as friends, but haven't had many opportunities to do so far.
Please feel free to comment, vote or ask questions because I love getting feedback and constructive criticism.
By the way, none of my chapters will have been properly edited so please point out errors
Thanks,
anon-sirekl20